Configure Hashicorp Vault

Deployment Platform
Related Documentation
Related Resources
Minimum Version
Kong Ingress Controller - 3.1
TL;DR

Create a KongVault CRD and then use the vault:// reference in your plugin configuration

Prerequisites

If you don’t have a Konnect account, you can get started quickly with our onboarding wizard.

  1. The following Konnect items are required to complete this tutorial:
    • Personal access token (PAT): Create a new personal access token by opening the Konnect PAT page and selecting Generate Token.
  2. Set the personal access token as an environment variable:

    export KONNECT_TOKEN='YOUR KONNECT TOKEN'
    

Use the Konnect API to create a new CLUSTER_TYPE_K8S_INGRESS_CONTROLLER Control Plane:

CONTROL_PLANE_DETAILS=$(curl -X POST "https://us.api.konghq.com/v2/control-planes" \
     --no-progress-meter --fail-with-body  \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $KONNECT_TOKEN" \
     --json '{
       "name": "My KIC CP",
       "cluster_type": "CLUSTER_TYPE_K8S_INGRESS_CONTROLLER"
     }'
)

We’ll need the id and telemetry_endpoint for the values.yaml file later. Save them as environment variables:

CONTROL_PLANE_ID=$(echo $CONTROL_PLANE_DETAILS | jq -r .id)
CONTROL_PLANE_TELEMETRY=$(echo $CONTROL_PLANE_DETAILS | jq -r '.config.telemetry_endpoint | sub("https://";"")')

Create mTLS certificates

Kong Ingress Controller talks to Konnect over a connected secured with TLS certificates.

Generate a new certificate using openssl:

openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -subj "/CN=kongdp/C=US" -keyout ./tls.key -out ./tls.crt

The certificate needs to be a single line string to send it to the Konnect API with curl. Use awk to format the certificate:

export CERT=$(awk 'NF {sub(/\r/, ""); printf "%s\\n",$0;}' tls.crt);

Next, upload the certificate to Konnect:

curl -X POST "https://us.api.konghq.com/v2/control-planes/$CONTROL_PLANE_ID/dp-client-certificates" \
     --no-progress-meter --fail-with-body  \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $KONNECT_TOKEN" \
     --json '{
       "cert": "'$CERT'"
     }'

Finally, store the certificate in a Kubernetes secret so that Kong Ingress Controller can read it:

kubectl create namespace kong -o yaml --dry-run=client | kubectl apply -f -
kubectl create secret tls konnect-client-tls -n kong --cert=./tls.crt --key=./tls.key
  1. Add the Kong Helm charts:

    helm repo add kong https://charts.konghq.com
    helm repo update
    
  2. Create a values.yaml file:

    cat <<EOF > values.yaml
    controller:
      ingressController:
        image:
          tag: "3.5"
        env:
          feature_gates: "FillIDs=true"
        konnect:
          license:
            enabled: true
          enabled: true
          controlPlaneID: "$CONTROL_PLANE_ID"
          tlsClientCertSecretName: konnect-client-tls
          apiHostname: "us.kic.api.konghq.com"
    gateway:
      image:
        repository: kong/kong-gateway
        tag: "3.13"
      env:
        konnect_mode: 'on'
        vitals: "off"
        cluster_mtls: pki
        cluster_telemetry_endpoint: "$CONTROL_PLANE_TELEMETRY:443"
        cluster_telemetry_server_name: "$CONTROL_PLANE_TELEMETRY"
        cluster_cert: /etc/secrets/konnect-client-tls/tls.crt
        cluster_cert_key: /etc/secrets/konnect-client-tls/tls.key
        lua_ssl_trusted_certificate: system
        proxy_access_log: "off"
        dns_stale_ttl: "3600"
      secretVolumes:
         - konnect-client-tls
    EOF
    
  3. Install Kong Ingress Controller using Helm:

    helm install kong kong/ingress -n kong --create-namespace --values ./values.yaml --wait 
    
  1. Add the Kong Helm charts:

    helm repo add kong https://charts.konghq.com
    helm repo update
    
  2. Create a file named license.json containing your Kong Gateway Enterprise license and store it in a Kubernetes secret:

    kubectl create namespace kong --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -
    kubectl create secret generic kong-enterprise-license --from-file=license=./license.json -n kong
    
  3. Create a values.yaml file:

    cat <<EOF > values.yaml
    gateway:
      image:
        repository: kong/kong-gateway
        tag: "3.13"
      env:
        LICENSE_DATA:
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: kong-enterprise-license
              key: license
    EOF
    
  4. Install Kong Ingress Controller using Helm:

    helm install kong kong/ingress -n kong --create-namespace --values ./values.yaml --wait 
    
  1. Install Vault in dev mode. This is not recommended for production deployments:

     helm install vault hashicorp/vault \
       --set='server.dev.enabled=true' \
       --namespace vault \
       --create-namespace
    
  2. Create a secret in HashiCorp Vault:

     kubectl exec -it -n vault vault-0 -- \
       vault kv put secret/customer/acme name="ACME Inc."
    

Create a KongVault entity

Kong Ingress Controller uses the KongVault entity to configure the connection to a Vault. As we’re running Hashicorp Vault in dev mode, we can use the root token to access the Vault:

echo "
apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1alpha1
kind: KongVault
metadata:
  name: hcv-vault
  namespace: kong
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
spec:
  backend: hcv
  prefix: hashicorp-vault
  description: Storing secrets in HashiCorp Vault
  config:
    host: vault.vault.svc.cluster.local
    token: root
    kv: v2
    mount: secret
    port: 8200
    protocol: http
" | kubectl apply -f -

We can now access secrets in this vault using the vault://hashicorp-vault/$KEY syntax. The hashicorp-vault prefix matches the prefix field in the KongVault resource.

Validate your configuration

To validate that the secret was stored correctly in HashiCorp Vault, you can call a secret from your vault using the kong vault get command within the Data Plane Pod.

kubectl exec -n kong -it deployment/kong-gateway -c proxy -- kong vault get {vault://hashicorp-vault/customer/acme/name}
kubectl exec -n kong -it deployment/kong-gateway -c proxy -- kong vault get {vault://hashicorp-vault/customer/acme/name}

If the vault was configured correctly, this command should return the value of the secret. You can use {vault://hashicorp-vault/customer/acme/name} to reference the secret in any referenceable field.

For more information about supported secret types, see What can be stored as a secret.

Cleanup

helm uninstall kong -n kong
kubectl delete namespace vault

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